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Could this be the world’s best, most technogically advanced camera ever? Canon thinks so in announcing the Canon EOS-1D X digital SLR (DSLR) with ultra-accurate focusing, a new CMOS sensor capable of working without flash in most every situation, and highest-quality images. The technology Canon brings to bear on the 1D X effectively responds to the concerns of high-end photographers who defected to Nikon in the past decade. It will have 18 megapixels of resolution and cost $6,800 when it ships next March — and that’s without lenses.

Perhaps it’s coincidence, but Canon put its tech elves to work shoring up the areas that caused many working pros to defect to Nikon, in particular to the Nikon D3 line, including autofocus speed and quality, image quality in low light, and image quality overall. This matters for all DSLR users because the high-end technology eventually trickles down to affordable (say, $1,000) DSLRs. The pros say they found a 10-frame burst from a Canon 1D of a football player making a catch had too many images not crisply focused, and images shot with available light had more noise than they’d like. Losing a couple thousand cranky pros to Nikon was a rounding error to Canon sales — Canon just celebrated selling its 50-millionth EOS series SLR last month — but amateurs and prosumers often follow the lead of the pros, so it was high time to plug the real or perceived leaks. Here’s what Canon did:

Inside the Canon 1D X there’s a bigger, full-frame sensor with fewer pixels. The larger the pixel, the better the image, all other things equal. The 1D X sensor employs gapless microlenses to enhance light gathering, improve light sensitivity, and reduce noise (that show up as the red, blue, and green speckles). The camera has two new Digic 5+ image processors with 17 times the speed of the Digic 4 processor on Canon’s previous top cameras, and as a result it can shoot at no less than 12 fps. Canon keeps a Digic 4 in the 1D X for auld lang syne: The Digic 4 exclusively handles metering and focusing. The 1D X has a brand new full frame sensor (full frame meaning the same 36x24mm as 35mm film) with a slightly reduced resolution, but still 18 megapixels and images up to 5184×3456 pixels, meaning JPEG images of about 8MB and RAW images of around 20MB.

The 1D X is the crowning glory of Canon’s DSLR range that starts with the sub-$1,000 amateur Canon Rebel line, works its way through the prosumer $1,000-$1,500 Canon 60D and 70D, past the $3,000 entry-level-pro EOS 5D Mark II, and up to the 1D line. Canon is replacing two pro cameras with the 1D X: the action-oriented EOS 1D Mark IV (16.1 megapixels, 1.3x APS-H crop sensor, 10 fps burst shooting speed, $5,000 street) and the studio-oriented Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III (21.1 megapixels, full frame, 5 fps burst shooting speed, $7,000 street). Each pixel on the new 1D X measures 6.95 microns, more than 20% larger than 5.7 micron pixels on the ID Mark IV, almost 10% bigger than the 6.4 micron pixels on the IDs III. Canon says there’s at least a two-stop (one stop equals a doubling or halving of light intensity) improvement in sensitivity and image quality. In other words, shooting at ISO 4000 returns the same or better quality as photos shot at ISO 1000 with older Canons.

The top ISO is now 51,200 (actually expandable to 201,800). ISO 51,200 is enough for portraits lit by a street lamp. Or if you’re shooting sports on a dimly lit field or rink at 1/250 second and f/2.8 lens aperture at ISO 1000 because the image looks crappy at higher ISOs, Canon is suggesting you’d get the same image quality now with an exposure of 1/1000 and f/4 — or an ISO midway between with better image quality. If and when Canon works its technology downscale, that will be a benefit to normal users who don’t buy $2,500 f/2.8 lenses but stick with sub-$500 f/4-5.6 zooms. They’ll finally be able to shoot a friend or child in a local stage production with great results, or shoot a birthday cake scene lit only by the candles. And the FBI’s going to be able to do better nighttime surveillance than ever before, which is good on the homeland security front, maybe less appealing if you’re a law-abiding couple out for a romantic stroll and walks into the picture.

Studio photogs don’t need GPS. External antennas are more accurate too. And unless you have a ridiculous amount of cash to throw around you’d only buy this camera because you use it for work.

Bill Howard

Photos agencies sell more of a pro’s photos when they’re chock full of metadata, particularly a full and thoughtful list of keywords. Location could be important in selling photos, too, and Canon could integrate GPS for a couple dollars that should be accurate enough: It shows you’re on the west branch inlet of such and such a lake and all the photo editor / buyer needs to know is that you’re in that chain of lakes so the GPS fix correctly matches up to a travel story about the lakes district. For $300, I’d expect not just a dead-accurate fix but also a GPS fix centered on where the camera is focused and aimed, not where the photog is standing.

Aye, that’s the camera I’m waiting for, I think — though I did hear full-frame might percolate down to the Rebel series, too (550, 600, 650D), in which case I’d rather have one of those :)

Anonymous

I cant wait Im gonna get on the company calander FINALLY

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